We were told it was going to happen, but now it's official — J.K. Rowling has written a novel for adults and it is going to be released Sept. 27. Rowling also announced last week that she is working on a Harry Potter encyclopedia.
I had to chuckle when I heard these pieces of news because they are such a metaphor for my life in general and my relationship with Harry Potter specifically. I was nine years old when I started reading the series, I was 17 when Deathly Hallows was released and I'm 22 now. Many people around my age say they grew up with Harry, Ron and Hermione and I'm no different. Like my hometown, my neighborhood, my grade school, my choir and my high school, those books are part of my roots.
But I'm an adult now and it's time to move on. It's time to graduate college, look for a job and read grown-up books.
Rowling's grown-up book (calling it an adult book sounds so seedy) is called The Casual Vacancy. It's a black comedy about a seemingly English idyll that is disrupted by the election for the town council seat that has been left empty by its previous holder's shocking death. It sounds a bit like the setting of a Miss Marple mystery (I have no problem with that).
I'm excited to read the novel because I'm interested to see if Rowling's writing style is any different. Several people have mentioned to me in the last few months that they don't think the Harry Potter books are very well-written. I would disagree, but I readily acknowledge that I haven't read them since I started college and that an adult perspective might alter my opinion. But even if I were to re-read them now, it might not make a difference because of how deeply ingrained they are in me already.
Basically, I'm biased by sentiment and I know I'm biased so I won't fight you if you disagree with me.
Rowling's writing style aside, I defend the masterful creation of a whole world that weaves together the smallest of details and gives the impression that there is much more behind the pages. I'm interested to see how she uses this skill in Casual Vacancy and whether the non-fantasy realm and non-series format impact it at all.
While I try to be an adult most of the time, I keep my roots close to my heart because they are part of who I am and I can't look forward without remembering who I am. So I plan to buy Rowling’s encyclopedia and I decided to check out Pottermore this week.
Pottermore, branded as Harry’s permanent online home, is an interactive exploration of some of the moments in the books. It launched open registration on April 14 after opening in beta to a limited number of fans last summer and extending that beta period past the original full launch date in October.
Pottermore is a little bit like a Harry Potter video or computer game (yes, I had the Sorcerer's Stone and Chamber of Secrets computer games so I'm speaking from experience here) in that you progress through the story like a game and with the help of graphics, but it’s not as involved. You don’t read the entire book as you go along (you have to purchase the ebook to do that) and you’re not responsible for advancing the plot in any way like you are in a video game. Overall, Pottermore gets old pretty quickly because of the limited interactions. It’s exciting at first and will suck you in for a solid three hours, but once you’ve finished the story, there’s not much reason to stick around.
I do have a few good things to say about Pottermore, though. Being matched with a wand and a house are pretty cool and the interactive illustrations are absolutely gorgeous (the Charms classroom is my favorite). Best of all, there are notes from Rowling hidden everywhere with details and background plots that never made it into the books. This bonus material is just some of the content that will eventually be contained in the Potter encyclopedia, so it's completely feasible to skip Pottermore and go straight to the book when it's released.
This is all to say that I'm a lot like J.K. Rowling. No, I'm not a rich and world-famous author; I'm moving on from Harry Potter but I will never completely give him up.